At the call of the evening prayer, a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach is unveiled in every Omani home. From the simplest spread to elaborate multi-course banquets, the fast-
breaking iftar meal brings out the best in Omani cuisine yet also reflects the openness of the sultanate’s culture to other tastes
and traditions.
Breaking the fast
Dates
Throughout the Muslim world, energy-packed dates are traditional first food of the iftar meal. Unlike people in other countries who must purchase dates, many Omanis grow their own date palms and have a variety of these sweet fruits at their fingertips. Whereas dried dates (tamar) are the most common form, they are in no way the only way Omanis enjoy the first bite of the meal.
Some families freeze fresh dates (ratab) during the season and break their fast with ice-cold fruits. Dried dates with dibs (date molasses) appear in supermarkets in packets or buckets. Suh is another special treatment of mashed dates prepared with samen (ghee in India) and sesame seeds, aniseed, fennel, cumin or
cardamom. Suh is often presented as a gift at the beginning of Ramadan and is a much-cherished treasure.
Water
Cool water is ubiquitous at iftar but in some regions of Oman even this humble drink receives extra attention. In villages of the interior, glass bottles (in the past, clay jars were used) are inverted over
burning frankincense and left to coat the container with aroma. Chilled water is then added to absorb the unique taste. No only is this an exotic treat, it is said to maintain kidney health.
Other beverages
Few iftar tables lack the rich, thirst-quenching, yogurt-based drink called laban. Although the salted drink can be purchased nearly
anywhere (even hypermarkets struggle to keep up with the demand), many households make fresh laban daily, sometimes adding mint, cumin or garlic.
Kahwa (Omani coffee) sometimes appears with the dates at the beginning of iftar. Few iftars are complete without some kind of
bottled or powdered drink or fresh fruit juices. The latter include lemonade with mint and rose water, watermelon with rose syrup, tamarind with rose water or pulpy orange juice.
These simple starters are enough to keep hunger at bay for
the moment. Most people prayer at this time before the stomach becomes too full, then return for more. And there’s lots more
to come.
Soups, porridges and puddings
Soups and thick porridges, easy on the stomach, are considered the best foods to consume after the dates and drinks.
One of the most popular soups is shorba. This combination of wheat grain and meat or chicken is flavoured with cardamom and cinnamon. It is eaten with various breads. A thicker version of
shorba is harees. The same combination of ingredients is cooked to a heavier consistency and is beaten with samen. Some people
like to sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon powder decoration over the harees.
Another common soup is oat porridge, cooked with meat,
chicken and sometimes egg. This humble food gets an Omani touch with the addition of fresh cilantro and dried lime.
Cracked wheat, lamb, cumin and yogurt are the main ingredients of jareesh, another common Gulf dish. This can be made into a soup or eaten as a thick porridge with an onion and tomato sauce.
Skhana, a sweet pudding made of rice flour, milk, sugar,
cardamom powder, saffron, rose water and unusual additions such as fenugreek (hilba), cress (habb hamra), tapioca (sago), black-eyed peas (loobia), or chick peas (dangoo) may be served at iftar or later, as a dessert.
An unusual soup strongly associated with Ramadan by some Omani communities is skoon, a mixture of black-eyed peas and dates. In some neighbourhoods, women can be found scooping the mixture into customers' containers from large vats.
Very different from all this fare is aseeda. This simple mixture of flour, sugar, samen and sometimes coconut is enjoyed at iftar in southern Oman.
Bread
The variety of breads featured at iftar is mind-boggling; indeed, it is in the bread that both Omani and foreign influence appear most distinctly and reflect the multicultural nature of the sultanate's cuisine.
On the traditional side are Omani specialties such as mandazi
(a soft cardamom bread introduced from the island of Zanzibar,
formerly a part of Oman), lola (a puri-like puffed, fried sweet
bread sometimes made with aniseed and dates) and khubz rakhal (paper-thin bread spread with samen). The first two are usually enjoyed with shorba or soup while the latter appears in fatte (see Main Dishes) or alongside curries and sauces.
Other Omani breads which appear on the iftar menu include masanif (chicken-stuffed pastries), mardouf (made with dates) and chilo (rice flour pancakes).
Reflecting the influence of other cultures on Omani culture,
Indo-Pakistani breads such as chapattis, paratha, puri and
tandoori bread enjoy a place at many meals.
Besides bread, many interesting starchy foods claim their
place in Ramadan. These include cassava (mohogo), bananas and plantains and traditional noodle dishes like sewiya (vermicelli fried with butter, cardamom powder, saffron, rose water and sugar).
Finger food
Some of the most popular foods for iftar are fried or baked snacks. This is where Omani cuisine has flung open the doors to non-Omani fare. It is also where creative innovation has made lasting marks.
Many Omani families enjoy sambosas every evening in Ramadan. These are usually made in a normal fashion with fillings like ground meat, pulses, onions, potatoes or vegetables. Unorthodox fillings are also quite popular, however: cheese and mint, franks and onions, scrambled or boiled eggs, creamed
garlic chicken. Likewise, pakoras or bhajias are usually made as expected with gram flour, onions and fresh coriander with tamarind chutney on the side. Many variations have made their way to the table, though. Some families make simple dumplings from the gram flour batter, omitting the vegetables. Similar fritters are made with beans and served with a chutney of coconut, lime, green chilis
and cilantro.
Other popular items include foods from all over: kachoris (potato balls) from Zanzibar; various kebabs, stuffed grape leaves, falafel and other Arab mezze foods; mini pizzas, baked stuffed rolls and puff pastries from Europe and America; and Chinese spring rolls. Even sushi from Japan has made a move to the centre of many
iftar tables.
Main dishes
At some point in the evening, usually after night prayers, families gather for dinner. Traditional dishes like fatte (stew made with meat or chicken), vegetables and tandoori or Omani khubz rakhal breads, owal wa jawal (similar to fatte but made with fish, lime and cumin), saloonas (curries and sauces) served with bread or rice, and kabuli or makbous (rice pilafs) are the most common. Harees is frequently enjoyed at this time as well.
Other dishes from outside Oman add variety to dinner, though. Biriyani from the subcontinent, Italian pasta concoctions, Chinese foods, and baked chicken appear nearly as often as traditional foods.
Nutritious salads like tabbouleh and fattoush may be served alongside the main course although often a simple fresh salad or vegetable plate is sufficient.
Sweets
If there is room after dinner (it seems there always is), dozens of delicious desserts await. Throughout the sultanate, jelly and custard (sometimes layered) are immensely popular and are purchased in enormous quantities. Alongside them in popularity are luqaimat or vitumbua (sweet fried dumplings drizzled with honey or sugar syrup laced with lemon, rose water or saffron sometimes eaten alongside the dates at sunset), crème caramel, falooda (a milky pudding made with China grass), and box cakes.
Middle Eastern sweets dominate Ramadan as well. Basboosa (semolina cake with sugar syrup), qataif (stuffed sweet pancakes) khaleeat nahal (cheese-filled sweet rolls) and ‘fingers of Zenobia�(choux pastry with icing sugar glaze) are some of the specialties
prepared for evening feasting. Sweets from the subcontinent are
purchased or prepared as well, including ras gulla, gulab jamun and ras malai. American cheesecake has taken a foothold as well and appears on many dessert trays.
Traditional sweets, though, still hold their own in many homes. Milky baked sweets with carrot, sweet potato or pumpkin, semolina puddings, skhana and khabeesah (made with flour, sugar, samen, milk, cardamom and saffron) have retained their popularity as have fluffy sweet rice flour breads and sweet rice noodle dishes hailing from Omani's Zanzibari connection. Dates appear again in rich, dense cakes.
In many homes, a tray of seasonal fruit is enough to end a meal. Sometimes these are cut into fruit salads, but most often they are eaten in their natural state, raw and refreshing.
Tea and coffee
To top it all off, a tray of tea and coffee may appear either with dessert or at the end of the feast. Teas infused with mint, thyme,
saffron or ginger are offered with or without milk. Of course, Omani coffee pours into finjans generously, as often as the recipient wishes.
At no other time of the year is the spirit of Omani cuisine better reflected than in the month of Ramadan, when cherished traditional dishes are enjoyed as enthusiastically as foods from other cultures, each year bringing new tastes with interesting Omani twists.
Recommended cookbooks
Al-Azaf: The Omani Cookbook by Lamees Abdullah Al-Taie
A Taste of the Arabian Gulf by Afnan Rashid Al-Zayani
A Taste to Remember by Fawziya Ali Khalifa Al-Maskiry
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